Liu Xiaobo dead

In 2010 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo. In the end of 2009 he had been arrested by the Chinese government. Photo: Utenriksdepartementet UD via flickr

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), China’s authorities are responsible for the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo – as he was not allowed to leave China to be treated by specialists abroad. Neither did he get adequate medical treatment in prison, although he had been complaining about pain for quite a while. “It is inhumane to refuse to provide adequate medical treatment to political prisoners, and to set them free when they are about to die. The death of Liu Xiaobo has clearly revealed the true face of the Chinese government – a state power that would stop at nothing to secure its position,” stated Ulrich Delius, the Director of the STP, in Göttingen on Tuesday.

The human rights organization pointed out that, after his case of severe liver cancer had become known, several specialists from all over the world had offered to try and save Liu Xiaobo’s life. “However, the Chinese authorities chose to ignore all those offers and the requests that the Nobel Peace Prize winner should be allowed to leave the country,” said Delius.

“China’s state terror against supporters of the democracy movement, human rights activists, lawyers, and members of minority groups has claimed another prominent person’s life. European politicians should now step up their commitment for political prisoners in China. Under Xi Jinping, they are facing even more hardship, inhuman treatment, and even death,” Delius stated.

Liu Xiaobo, who had been part of the mass protests in 1989 – which had led to the Tiananmen Massacre in June 1989 – was repeatedly imprisoned in Beijing before his last prison sentence. He was one of the authors and first signatories of the so-called Charter 08, former President and board member of the Independent Chinese P.E.N. Center.